分类：商业

Europe’s railways
欧洲铁路A high-speed revolution
高速革命

Jul 5th 2007 | BRUSSELS, FRANKFURT, PARIS AND STRASBOURG
From The Economist print edition

European railways form an alliance to promote swifter international travel
欧洲铁路形成一个联盟用以提升更快的国际旅行

AS THE fastest train in Europe reaches its top speed of 320kph (200mph) the glasses of wine on the bar barely wobble. Champagne country is a blur as the train tears along Europe’s newest high-speed line—the first to link France and Germany. France’s Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV) can now travel between Stuttgart and Paris in only three hours 40 minutes instead of six hours. The latest generation of Germany’s Inter-City Express (ICE) trains has similarly shrunk the journey time between Frankfurt and Paris.
当欧洲最快的列车达到它每小时320公里（每小时200英里）最高速度时，吧台上那些杯中的酒竟然很少晃动。当列车飞驰在第一条连接法兰西和德国的欧洲最新的高速线上时，香槟之国有些看不清楚了。法兰西的法国高速列车（TGV）现在可以在3小时40分钟内从斯图尔特跑到巴黎，而不是6个小时。最新一代德国城际快速列车（ICE）让法兰克福和巴黎间的旅行时间也相应缩短了。

继续阅读“[2007.07.05] Europe’s Railways – A high-speed revolution”

Media
媒体 Rupert gets his trophy
鲁珀特得到了他的战利品
Aug 1st 2007 | NEW YORK
From Economist.com

Rupert Murdoch has won Dow Jones, demonstrating his dealmaking prowess
赢了道琼斯，鲁珀特.默多克展现了其高超的并购技巧

NEWS reports suggested that the result was in doubt right up to the end, but Rupert Murdoch’s admirers were certain that he would prevail. “Rupert doesn’t ask questions to which he doesn’t already know the answer,” says one fellow media mogul. So when Mr Murdoch’s News Corporation offered in April to buy Dow Jones, the owner of the Wall Street Journal, he was already pretty sure that the reply, which eventually came in the early hours of Wednesday August 1st, would be yes—and it was.
新闻报道都暗示现在盖棺定论还为时尚早，但是鲁珀特.默多克的粉丝们都确信他会获胜。“鲁珀特不会打无把握之战，”一位同行的媒体大亨如是说。因此四月份当默多克先生的新闻集团提出购买道琼斯时——华尔街日报的东家——他就已经非常确信会有一个肯定的答复，这个答复最终在8月1日星期三一早敲定——答案确实是可以。

继续阅读“[2007.08.01]Rupert gets his trophy默多克胜了”

Anti-corruption measures
Too little, too late?反腐败：力度不足，为时已晚？

Dec 13th 2006 | FRANKFURT
From The Economist print edition

Siemens belatedly wakes up to reputation risk
西门子终于意识到自己的声誉危机，可惜为时已晚

IT IS a dense, dramatic account of police raids, arrests and the investigation into allegations that at least euro200m ($265m) was siphoned out of secret bank accounts in Liechtenstein, Austria and Switzerland. A page-turning airport thriller? No, the 20-F filing submitted by Siemens, a German conglomerate, to the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, DC on December 11th. At the same time, the firm restated its earnings to take account of uncertainties over transactions being investigated by state prosecutors in at least three countries.
　　这是一段关于警方的搜查、逮捕、调查的叙述，紧张而生动，因有人声称至少2亿欧元（2.65亿美元）从列支敦士登、奥地利、瑞士的秘密银行帐户上被划走。你以为这是让你不忍释卷的惊险小说？不是的，这是12月11日德国西门子集团提交给华盛顿证券交易委员会的20-F文件。提交文件的同时，考虑到国家检查官正在至少三个国家调查其交易，后果难料，西门子还重估了利润。

继续阅读“[2006.12.13][business] Anti-corruption measures: Too little, too late?”

The universal diarist
风靡全球的日记作者
Nov 23rd 2006
From The Economist print edition

Mena Trott of Six Apart is at the forefront of the shift from mass media to “intimate media”
Six Apart公司的Mena Trott正在引领大众传媒走向“私人传媒”。

IT ALL began five years ago with a blog entry about a banjo. Mena Trott had recently graduated as an English major from college and, at 23, was living as an under-employed designer with her husband Ben in San Francisco, passing her time by keeping a personal online diary. Called Dollarshort, it was a blog about her childhood, her pets and that sort of thing. One day, on a girly whim, she wrote that she wanted to buy a banjo but that her husband, ever the “tyrant”, wouldn’t let her. Mena’s friends and family, knowing that “Ben is the sweetest guy in the world”, recognised the humour, says Ms Trott. But all sorts of strangers suddenly blogged back with angry feminist advice, advising her to get a separate bank account, to tell off her bullying husband, and even to leave him. Ms Trott was livid. “Why can’t people take a joke, and who are these people anyway?” she wondered.
故事要从五年前一篇关于班卓琴的博客文章说起。当时Mena Trott刚从大学英语专业毕业，与她的丈夫Ben一起住在旧金山。她的职业是一名设计师，但没多少活可干，就靠在网上写日记打发时光。那个名叫Dollarshort的博客记载了她的童年，她的宠物，等等不一而足。有一天，她突然萌生了一个孩子气的念头，就在日记中说她想买一把班卓琴，可她那位素来“专制”的丈夫不让她买。Trott女士说，她的亲朋好友都知道“Ben是世界上最可爱的小伙子”，所以一眼就看出来她这是在开玩笑。但是形形色色的陌生人却纷纷在她的博客中留言，愤怒地表示男女应该平等，有的建议她单独设立一个银行账户，有的让她教训一下她那横行霸道的丈夫，还有的甚至劝她离婚。Trott女士气不打一处来。她心想：“为什么人们看不出来这是玩笑呢？这都是些什么人呢？”

继续阅读“[2006.11.23]Face value：The universal diarist风靡全球的日记作者”

Fear of flying飞行恐惧

Welcome aboard
欢迎乘坐本次航班
Sep 7th 2006
From The Economist print edition
 

In-flight announcements are not entirely truthful. What might an honest one sound like? 

机舱广播未必都可当真。一个诚实的版本会是什么样的呢？

“GOOD morning, ladies and gentlemen. We are delighted to welcome you aboard Veritas Airways, the airline that tells it like it is. Please ensure that your seat belt is fastened, your seat back is upright and your tray-table is stowed. At Veritas Airways, your safety is our first priority. Actually, that is not quite true: if it were, our seats would be rear-facing, like those in military aircraft, since they are safer in the event of an emergency landing. But then hardly anybody would buy our tickets and we would go bust.

“女士们，先生们，早上好。感谢您搭乘真相航空公司的航班，我们的服务正如公司名称一样，只讲真话。请您系好安全带，将座椅靠背调直，收起小桌板。在真相航班上，您的安全是我们的首要考虑。说实在的，没那回事儿。如果真是安全第一的话，我们的座椅应该和军机一样是背对背的，那样，在紧急迫降时才比较安全。当然，如果我们的座椅真的改成了那样，就没人会买我们的票，我们也就关门大吉了。”

继续阅读“[2006.09.09] Fear of flying：Welcome aboard”